The location of the course has been a present for the senses, absolutely overwhelming. The methodology based on experiential learning where classes were opened to The World. the classroom has been an example of how school can be motivating and fun.

After this course, we have become more aware of how and what to do in internationalisation in our own lessons. I notice that I'm often unconsciously busy with internationalisation. After this course, I want to do more focused assignments and discuss them more in lesson. For my subject (German) I often have texts with certain themes or chapters that contain a particular theme. Here I could do a lot more than I did in recent years. 

We also got a better idea of setting up projects and the terms that are associated with it.

Except the theory, we have also been able to experience much of the daily life of Guadeloupe. I learned a lot about culture, nature, eating habits, etc. I like to get to know other cultures because it will be easier to understand humanity.

The theory we had to read was sometimes difficult, especially because of the English language that I do not control very well. Therefore, it took a little more time to understand the texts, but in the end I found it all clear. What I was particularly happy with were the examples. 

We certainly learned a lot from each other. Everyone has different ideas and everyone is doing something with internationalisation. Together we have a lot of knowledge and through this course we have had the time to share this and, if necessary, think about improvements.

Thanks to Rita and Fredo, we also had more chance of contacting the locals and seeing certain sides of the island that you would never see as a tourist.

The course on internationalization and creating international projects was well developed. I enjoyed how it started with the theoretical building blocks, than went on to the broader picture and finally it became more practical and gave us a scaffold for writing an international project.

Being in Guadeloupe and submerged in a completely different culture really strengthened in particular the first part of this course, where we were learning about identity, culture and global citizenship. It has also been a massive help in improving my French, through the course, but maybe even more importantly through interacting with locals and hearing French all around me.

The locations have been breathtaking, some of the beaches we visited appeared to be straight out of a travel brochure and that has been a great experience for me. I would have never visited an island like this myself for a holiday, which means that the course has given me an experience that I would otherwise have never had and we all grow and learn through new experiences.

The mentality of the people and the pace of life in Guadeloupe is that different from the Netherlands, that being here has really giving me insights that will help me in dealing with partner school from other European countries. 

As I wrote in my last reflection as well, I really do think my future project will be better because of this course and I further believe that I will be a better supervisor/guide when taking students on foreign trips for it. As I already wrote in my very first reflection, I think we need to be more aware that time with students in the hotel or at a restaurant during these trips are also teaching times. I think that because of this course, I’ll miss less opportunities to actually teach students something.

This is where the journey of discovery ends ...  on Guadeloupe at least. After ten days of discussions we are ready to go home and start implementing what we've learned on the course. We now all know how to write an international policy for our school and what kinds of projects are suitable for Erasmus+. We brainstormed on various projects and can take the next step of actually creating a new project at our school. 

The articles and the reflections made us aware of what kind of teachers we are and in what way we can improve ourselves when it comes to teaching our pupils on how to become a global citizen. The reflections were a key part of our learning process. Without mulling over our experiences one might mistake these past ten days as a holiday rather than a 100 hour course. I imagine my classes will change in the sense that I will shift a little of my focus from English language teaching to internationlisation in my classroom. In the past I discussed cultural differences on an infrequent basis, next year I am going to make a conscious effort in adding international topics in the regular English classes. The teachers of English on this course already discussed the possibility of incorporating a new project in a particular year. 

The door has been opened; now it is up to us to keep it open.